Almost 9,000 people have signed a petition by the charity Aid to the Church in Need calling on the UK to grant asylum to a 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was abducted, raped, forced to convert to Islam and marry her abductor, and is now at risk of being killed for apostasy. Maria Shahbaz, a Catholic, was kidnapped in April. The call comes as churches marked Red Wednesday, an annual day to raise awareness of Christian persecution and other violations of religious freedom.
English and Welsh Catholic bishops met virtually and in person where possible for a plenary session last week, devoting Wednesday entirely to safeguarding. Other issues included racial justice, the Holy Land, the Lectionary and the environment, as well as Covid-19.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has unveiled a series of photographs of Mass being celebrated in empty churches, as part of a project marking the Covid-19 pandemic. The images can be viewed here.
Ecumenical charity Liverpool Seafarers Centre has appealed for prayers and Christmas gifts for seafarers, fearing they will be hit hardest during Christmas. Charity chief executive John Wilson says that without seafarers, many of the gifts we give to loved ones at Christmas would not be available.
Sir James MacMillan is to give the 2020 Ushaw Lecture at Durham University on 9 December. The composer will be returning to where he completed his BA and PhD to speak about “Catholicism and Music”. Sir James has released a section of his text exclusively to The Tablet, in which he suggests that Catholics may be in a “unique position to offer the world a gift from history” – 2,000 years of experience, which could be a key to the uncharted waters ahead.
Churches in the UK have both a unique opportunity to bring local communities together in a post-Covid-19 world where loneliness and inequality look set to rise, claims a new national report endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as well as fellow Churches Together presidents Pastor Agu Irukwu (Pentecostal) and Archbishop Anba Angaelos (Coptic Orthodox). “The Church and Social Cohesion: Connecting Communities and Serving People”, by the Free Churches Group and Theos, calls on every church to assess the best use of its resources to improve social cohesion at the grassroots level.
Pax Christi England and Wales has backed Rethinking Security, a UK-based network of peace and security experts that last week criticised the government’s £16.5 billion increase to the Ministry of Defence’s budget while other government departments face cuts.
Christians, especially at this time of year, are being urged to consider where their food comes from as part of a new project based at Chester University looking at the welfare of farm animals and why it should matter to the faithful, both in terms of new global trading agreements and climate change.
The Covid-19 pandemic has presented Irish Catholics with many challenges, according to Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary. In a new pastoral letter on the challenges it poses to people’s faith he says it has been especially “difficult and lonely” for those who have had to lay to rest a family member.
The Redemptorist community in Belfast hosted the closing Mass of the Men’s Holy Family Confraternity on Sunday. Members gathered at Clonard monastery to give thanks for its 123 years and to recall the work of thousands of members since the association’s foundation in July 1897.
An Irish missionary priest who became one of the most highly regarded translators of Korean poetry in the world and won numerous literary awards has died in Seoul aged 80. Cavan- born Columban Fr Kevin O’Rourke was a poet as well as a scholar. He was born in November 1939 and ordained in 1963. The following year, he went to South Korea where he served as assistant pastor at Soyangro Church in Chuncheon, Gangwon.
Loading ...
